TidBITS#717/16-Feb-04
=====================
It's a grab bag week here at TidBITS, starting with Jeff Carlson
passing on iChat AV tips and examining PalmSource's elimination of
future Macintosh support. Adam announces our first Japanese Take
Control title and reviews Konfabulator, a neat Mac OS X program
reminiscent of HyperCard. Then Glenn Fleishman chimes in with a
pointer to where you can pick up a refurbished Power Mac G5 from
the Virginia Tech supercomputer cluster, and in the news, Apple
starts shipping iPod minis and updates GarageBand slightly.
Topics:
MailBITS/16-Feb-04
Take Control of Upgrading to Panther in Japanese
Instant Nostalgia Available at Supercomputer Speeds
PalmSource to Drop Mac Support in Palm OS Cobalt
Tips from iChat AV 2: VQS
Consider Me Konfabulated
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/16-Feb-04
Copyright 2004 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license
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MailBITS/16-Feb-04
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**iPod mini Begins to Ship** -- The iPod mini, which Apple
announced last month at Macworld Expo San Francisco 2004, is
starting to trickle into consumer's hands. A $250 version of
Apple's popular iPod music player, the iPod mini sports a tiny
4 GB hard drive in an enclosure that weighs only 3.6 ounces
(102 grams) and comes in 5 anodized aluminum colors. What makes
the iPod mini appealing to me, though, is the way Apple's
designers incorporated the control buttons into the solid-state
scroll wheel, a much better implementation than the four separate
buttons on current iPods that are difficult to navigate with one
hand and too often get pressed accidentally. Apple retail stores
are supposed to receive shipments of the iPod mini on 20-Feb-04;
people who ordered one shortly after Macworld Expo are receiving
shipping notices now. [JLC]
**GarageBand 1.0.1 Released** -- Apple has a nearly inscrutable
minor update to its music-creation application GarageBand,
saying it "clarifies specific alert dialogs regarding system
performance." We can only imagine that Apple rolled a few
unspecified bug fixes into the update, which weighs in as
a hefty 21.5 MB download! [JLC]
Take Control of Upgrading to Panther in Japanese
------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst
Last week, we released yet another Take Control title, but
this one's a bit different. It's Joe Kissell's "Take Control
of Upgrading to Panther," translated into Japanese for the many
Macintosh users in Japan and elsewhere who prefer to read in
Japanese. It was translated for us by the industrious volunteer
TidBITS Japanese translation team, although we insisted on
compensating them for their significant effort. As a result,
the Japanese translation costs US$7.50, split evenly between
us, Joe, and the translation team.
To thank those Japanese speakers who already purchased the English
version of Joe's ebook, we're offering them a free copy of the
translation. If you fall into that category, send Tonya email
at so she can look up your Kagi or
eSellerate order and send you a coupon for a free copy of the
translation. Since we can't promise a schedule for translations
of updates to Joe's ebook, everyone who orders either the English
or Japanese version will be eligible to receive free updates in
English, with the translation coming later.
Needless to say, we're at a huge disadvantage when it comes to
trying to tell Japanese publications and Web sites about this
translation, so any help anyone can provide in this arena would
be extremely appreciated.
Instant Nostalgia Available at Supercomputer Speeds
---------------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman
You can purchase a refurbished piece of Macintosh history; MacMall
is selling some quantity of the Power Mac G5 computers that
comprised Virginia Tech's top-ranked supercomputer. If you recall
the story, the university purchased 1,100 dual-processor 2 GHz
Power Mac G5s from the initial run of Apple's 64-bit desktop
computer. A few months later, the massive cluster system ranked
as the number three supercomputer in the world, and at a fraction
of the cost per teraflop (trillion floating point operations per
second) as numbers one and two.
After Steve Jobs announced G5-based rack-mounted Xserves, which
use 40 percent less power and occupy one-third as much space
as the G5 towers, Virginia Tech committed to a quick upgrade.
Speculation abounds, too, that Apple will supply Virginia Tech
with dual 2.5 GHz G5 processors, which are possible with the
smaller and lower-powered newer G5 chip.
Of course, the university's announcement in late January led many
to ask what would become of the Power Mac G5s being rotated out
of service. Would they be given or sold to Virginia Tech students?
Slashdot devoted a long thread to amusing comments.
MacMall has the answer: they're selling off the machines as Apple-
warrantied refurbished units for $2,800 each. A comparable new
computer (which includes no modem and 1 GB of RAM instead of the
512 MB of a stock dual G5) costs $3,220 purchased directly from
the Apple Store.
If you were to buy one of these machines, you might wonder
if, late at night, it might reach out over the Internet to its
former rack mates and exchange some long polynomials just for
old time's sake.
PalmSource to Drop Mac Support in Palm OS Cobalt
------------------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson
At the PalmSource Developer Conference last week, PalmSource, the
company that develops and licenses the Palm OS, revealed details
about its forthcoming handheld operating system and also dropped
some disappointing news: the company will stop supporting the
Macintosh. Fortunately, a Mac developer is stepping in to pick
up the pieces - and hopefully improve the Palm experience for
Mac users.
**Cobalt and Garnet** -- Palm OS Cobalt, formerly known as Palm OS
6, is a near-complete rewrite of the Palm OS that incorporates
advanced features such as multitasking and multithreading, memory
protection, improved security, and support for larger screens and
more memory (up to 256 MB). Cobalt also boosts the graphics and
multimedia capabilities of the Palm OS, thanks to contributions
from engineers acquired in Palm, Inc.'s 2001 purchase of Be, Inc.
(see "Palm Gets Be in Its Bonnet" in TidBITS-593_).
Palm OS Cobalt is expected to be available on new handheld devices
later this year, though no specific timeline was mentioned; the
software has been delivered to PalmSource licensees, so the time
frame depends on when new devices will be ready.
PalmSource also announced that the next revision of Palm OS 5
(the latest version shipping with current handhelds) will be
renamed Palm OS Garnet and will be geared toward use in hybrid
"smartphones" such as PalmOne's popular Treo 600, which currently
runs Palm OS 5.2.1.
(This is a good opportunity to recap the Palm players, since the
names seem to change every time I write about them for TidBITS.
In 2002, Palm, Inc. spun off its operating system division into
a subsidiary called PalmSource. In 2003, after Palm's board of
directors gave the final go-ahead on PalmSource becoming an
independent company, Palm, Inc. also bought its chief rival
Handspring, and renamed the combined company PalmOne. These
moves have led to all sorts of overlap. For example, the
PalmOne Tungsten T3 runs on the standard Palm OS 5, licensed
from PalmSource, but includes improvements to the built-in
applications such as Calendar and Contacts - themselves
previously known as Date Book and Address Book. Other Palm OS
licensees, such as Sony, make their own changes to the Palm OS
as they see fit. Explaining it always makes me dive for the
aspirin bottle.)
**Goodbye, Mac** -- Another feature of Palm OS Cobalt is that it
"improves compatibility with Microsoft Windows," according to
PalmSource, specifically Microsoft Outlook. More to the point,
due to a change in how HotSync synchronization works in Cobalt,
plus changes in the architecture of the built-in applications,
synchronization with Macs won't be supported in Cobalt.
To be honest, this isn't a huge surprise, given that Palm's
current support for the Mac seems to have evaporated, and at least
some Macintosh engineers have been laid off. When Apple released
Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, compatibility problems arose that have yet
to be fixed. (The problem appears to be related to permissions
for HotSync components; some people report that reinstalling Palm
Desktop and HotSync Manager under Panther work fine, while others
have seen success by reinstalling the software while logged in
as the root user.) Although Palm has occasionally taken interest
in the Mac - such as buying Claris Organizer and turning it into
Palm Desktop for Macintosh - the company's overall history of Mac
support has seemed more like the kid brother your parents insisted
you take to the movies with your date; he can get into the show,
but has to sit somewhere else and can't have any popcorn.
PalmSource's statement about the situation hints at possible
ongoing work between the company and Apple, but the emphasis
is clearly on third-party solutions. Michael Mace, PalmSource's
chief competitive officer (who used to be an Apple executive),
issued the following statement to selected media outlets saying,
"PalmSource is fortunate to have a great Palm OS developer
community who provide solutions for Macintosh compatibility today.
Palm OS provides an open and flexible architecture and allows its
licensees to decide whether to ship a Mac compatibility solution
with their Palm Powered device. (One such solution is provided by
Mark/Space.) We are continuing our efforts with Apple to provide
compatibility between Palm OS and Macintosh."
**The Missing Sync** -- Fortunately, Mac support isn't completely
drying up. Mark/Space, which already ships Missing Sync for Palm
OS and Missing Sync for Sony Clie, announced that the next major
version of their utility would not only continue Mac
synchronization support, but improve upon it.
In its current incarnation, Missing Sync for Palm OS 2.0.1 isn't
a synchronization tool in the same vein as HotSync Manager. If
your Palm handheld has an SD (Secure Digital) card inserted when
you run the software, the card appears on your Mac desktop as if
it were a removable disk. Missing Sync also includes plug-ins for
iPhoto and iTunes, enabling you to send photos and MP3 files to
the handheld's SD card for viewing and listening using third-
party software (SplashPhoto and AeroPlayer). Lastly, Missing Sync
features Internet Sharing, where the Palm connects directly to the
Internet via your Mac, letting you surf the Web, check email, and,
for those who have missed it, use AvantGo (which was never updated
to support Mac OS X).
The Cobalt version of Missing Sync, however, will be a complete
replacement for the Palm HotSync architecture, enabling data
synchronization between the Palm and Apple's iApps (iCal, Address
Book, and iMovie along with iTunes and iPhoto), or between the
Palm and Microsoft Entourage. The interface will be more in
line with Mac OS X, and will also offer improved Bluetooth
synchronization and synchronization over Wi-Fi networks. The
new architecture will also support current HotSync conduits, so if
you use other personal information managers such as Now Up-to-Date
& Contact or Chronos Personal Organizer, the current conduits will
work. This includes Apple's own iSync conduit, which currently
works with HotSync Manager; however, my experiences synchronizing
Palms with iSync have been disappointing. (Developers can also
choose to support the new Missing Sync architecture.)
Missing Sync for Cobalt will support handhelds running Palm OS 4
and later, and Mac OS X 10.2 and later. Mark/Space has published
a technical white paper (a 72K PDF) and a marketing white paper
(a 264K PDF) with more information.
Mark/Space expects the cost of the new Missing Sync to be about
$40, though it's still up in the air whether PalmOne or other
hardware companies will choose to bundle it with their devices.
It would be a shame if Mac users were forced to pay a premium
for synchronization capabilities, though it wouldn't be without
precedent: the early PalmPilots required Mac users to buy the Palm
MacPac, which included a serial adapter that plugged into the
Mac's serial port.
Still, even if I have to pay for synchronization capabilities,
it's worth the cost. I still use my Palm handheld every day,
because it's better suited as an organizer than the iPod's
calendar and contacts features. I'm also optimistic that a
company like Mark/Space, which has been developing Mac software
for years, can focus its efforts on making a worthwhile Palm
data synchronization tool for the Mac.
Tips from iChat AV 2: Visual QuickStart Guide
---------------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson
Several weeks went by last December before I told anyone,
especially my fellow authors, about the latest book contract
I'd signed with Peachpit Press. It's not that I was being ultra-
competitive or feared that someone else would steal my idea and
get to it before I did. Mostly, I didn't know how they'd react.
After all, I was due to write a book - a paper, printed book -
about Apple's iChat AV.
That's right. A book. About _chat_. I wasn't one hundred percent
certain I could pull it off, given that iChat appears to be a
simple, straightforward program. But once I delved into it more,
I realized that Apple performed another one of its sleight-of-hand
tricks, packaging a powerful little application into a deceptively
simple interface. What once seemed like a program for teens to
distract themselves from homework has turned out to be a useful
tool for passing quick notes, transferring files, and putting
a face to people I know from afar.
I'm surprisingly proud of the book that resulted, iChat AV 2 for
Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide. It was fast and fun to write,
interesting to learn how others are using iChat, and amazing to
see some of the third-party software that's been released to
support iChat. I should also point out that the 120-page book
retails for $15, which means you can get it for just over $10
at Amazon.com.
So here are some tips and helpful information about iChat AV
collected from the book and based on common questions I've been
asked. In an upcoming issue of TidBITS, I'll look at some third-
party programs that enhance iChat.
**Getting a .Mac Account** -- Perhaps the biggest misconception
people seem to have about iChat AV is that you need a full-blown
paid subscription to Apple's .Mac service. Well, here's a $100
tip: when you sign up for a trial .Mac account at the URL below,
you get the full service for 60 days, but you can keep your .Mac
name after the trial period expires. Or, if you have an existing
AOL account, you can use your AOL screen name without signing up
for .Mac at all; AOL screen names are also free, but when given
a choice I tend to steer away from AOL.
**Chatting with Non-iChat Users** -- iChat users aren't limited to
communicating with just other iChat users (though I'm sure that
would be Apple's preference). iChat uses the AOL Instant Messenger
(AIM) network, so you can text chat with anyone using an AIM
compatible client - including Mac OS 9 and Windows users running
AIM. With the recent release of the iChat AV 2.1 beta, you can now
correspond via audio or video chats as long as the other person is
running AIM 5.5 in Windows.
However, you won't be able to chat in iChat with people using the
other major text-messaging network, MSN. A few clients, such as
Epicware's Fire or Alien Technology's Proteus, are capable of
supporting both networks, but can't cross conversations between
the two - you'd still need an MSN account to chat with people who
use the MSN network). You can also chat with friends who are on
the ICQ network by entering their ICQ number into the Account Name
field when you add them to your Buddy List.
**Set Up Buddy Actions** -- iChat AV includes a number of ways to
get your attention, including custom buddy actions. For example,
my mother usually hops on her iMac for a short time each day to
check email, and she signs in to iChat at the same time. When she
logs in and appears in my Buddy List, my Mac says "Mom is online"
using Apple's text-to-speech technology. You can also set up
custom sounds or make the iChat application icon bounce in the
Dock for up to seven different actions.
Click the person's name in the Buddy List (they don't need to
be online) and choose Get Info from the Buddies menu, or press
Command-Shift-I (Command-I also works). From the Show pop-up menu,
choose Actions. Then choose an event from the Event pop-up menu
and specify the type of action that will occur. If you want to
make it a one-time action, click the checkbox labeled "Perform
actions only next time even occurs."
**Understanding Buddy Groups** -- You can set up buddy groups to
help manage your Buddy List, though Apple's implementation of
this feature could stand some improvement. Not only is the feature
partially hidden, it doesn't necessarily behave the way you'd
expect.
First, choose Show Groups from the View menu; a pop-up menu
reading "All Groups" appears above the Buddy List, and the Groups
drawer slides out from the left side of the window. You can add a
new group by clicking the plus-sign (+) icon at the lower left of
the drawer, much as you would a new playlist in iTunes or a photo
album in iPhoto.
Populating your new group should be as easy as dragging a person's
name from the Buddy List to the group name, but that's not the
case. By default, all your buddies are added to the group named
"Buddies"; but unlike the behavior found in iTunes or iPhoto,
dragging a person into a new group actually removes her from
Buddies and adds her to the new group. If you later decide to
remove her from the new group, she's not only ejected from the
group, but she's deleted entirely from your Buddy List! To get
around this annoying interface gaffe, Option-drag the buddy's
name to the group to copy, not move, the buddy into that group.
One last group tip: If you're not going to use groups after all,
and therefore don't want the group pop-up menu to appear, open
iChat's preferences, click the General icon, and deselect the
"Use groups in Buddy List" checkbox.
**An Easy Audio Fix** -- Sometimes during the course of an audio
chat, the sound quality can degrade as you talk. To improve the
audio without making a new connection, click the Mute button in
the audio chat window, then click Mute again. iChat re-evaluates
the available bandwidth and improves the connection.
**Sending and Receiving Files** -- Don't tell the music cartel,
but iChat ends up being a highly effective peer-to-peer file
transfer mechanism. However, there are better things to do than
send MP3 files. I've used iChat to zing Mac OS X installer
packages from one Mac to another in my house without needing
to set up file sharing, for example. I've also been able to send
Take Control ebook files to Adam and Tonya instantly for quick
back and forth design work. And it's wicked easy to bounce a
digital photo to my Mom in Sacramento. In fact, when you send
an image via iChat, a preview appears within the text chat window;
clicking it grabs the full-size image. The same is true for PDF
files too: you can even scroll through their pages in the chat
window. However, I advise against sending PDFs that are larger
than a page or two, because iChat can get hung up waiting to
complete the transfer.
Once you've received a file from someone, where does it end up?
In Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, iChat gets this information from the
Safari's General preferences.
iChat AV may not be the ultimate chat client, but the fact that
it comes with all new Macs for free makes it easy to try out
(iChat 1.0 shipped with Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar; iChat AV 2.0 ships
with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, or is available for Jaguar users as
a separate $30 purchase). Before iChat, we didn't use chat or
instant messaging at all when producing TidBITS, and although
we're not typing away at each other all day long now, there's
no question that iChat has proved useful to us. If you've been
wondering what all the fuss is about, give iChat a try.
Consider Me Konfabulated
------------------------
by Adam C. Engst
Some programs defy categorization. Bill Atkinson described
HyperCard as a "software erector set," which was actually quite
accurate, even if Apple's marketing department kept trying to
sell it as a presentation program, a personal information manager,
and a combination floor wax/dessert topping.
If I were handing out Software Erector Set awards today,
Konfabulator would top my list. Written by Arlo Rose and Perry
Clarke and first released a year ago, Konfabulator resists being
pigeonholed in exactly the same way HyperCard did because it's
both an application runtime engine and a host to highly focused
programs written by others. Whereas HyperCard introduced the easy,
English-like HyperTalk programming language and the concept of
"stacks," Konfabulator relies on JavaScript and calls its programs
"Widgets." The comparison isn't perfect, of course, since
HyperCard offered basic database capabilities that enabled
it to act as a repository for data, whereas Konfabulator is
pretty much only a shell in which its Widgets can run (though
I think adding a database for Widgets to access could be quite
interesting). In short, though, Konfabulator is, as its tagline
says, whatever you want it to be.
**Building a Better Widget** -- Comparisons with HyperCard abound.
Konfabulator ships with a set of Widgets that are actually useful,
such as a picture frame (because who can see their Desktop picture
when they're working, anyway?), a stock ticker, a weather report,
a Desktop Trash can, a simple to do list, a floating search bar,
and more. But Konfabulator wouldn't be interesting if you were
limited to its included Widgets. Arlo and Perry run a Widget
Gallery that lists over 500 user-contributed Widgets, and
scrolling through the list is utterly reminiscent of poring
through lists of HyperCard stacks. Most are silly, of course,
such as countdown timers for upcoming movies, but just as with
HyperCard stacks, there are a few gems, such as a Widget to create
symlinks, a word counter, a process monitor that displays load
averages and uptime, a SETI@home statistics reporter, and a lyric
scraper that tries to display the lyrics of the current iTunes
track. The Widget Gallery lets users rate Widgets and leave
comments, and from what I've seen, because that extra data
comes from an involved user community, it's quite helpful and
to the point.
Few Widgets offer truly unique capabilities that you couldn't
find elsewhere, but that's not the point. The point is that
individuals can use a common scripting language, sometimes tying
in to command-line programs, to create tiny programs that do
something useful, interesting, or just plain fun (there are a
bunch of small game Widgets). Plus, since Widgets are actually
packages (Control-click one and choose Show Package Contents),
you can see and modify them to your heart's content. It's exactly
like the days of HyperCard, when you could take apart a neat stack
to see how it was done.
Many people don't realize that Widgets are modifiable, and
probably even more don't realize that Widgets aren't limited
to JavaScript. Through a pair of commands - applescript() and
runcommand() - Widgets can incorporate AppleScript code (handy for
controlling Macintosh applications) and Perl, Ruby, Python or any
other command-line scripting engine. So if JavaScript isn't your
cup of tea, you can likely still make cool Widgets with another
scripting language.
Because Arlo Rose is the guy who introduced themable interfaces
to the world with his work at Apple on the Appearance Manager,
and later on the utility Kaleidoscope, Konfabulator Widgets take
full advantage of Quartz rendering in Mac OS X. That means Widgets
aren't restricted to rectangular windows, and you can control
their opacity on a per-Widget level. Opacity is actually quite
important, since you can choose whether any given Widget will
float above all other windows, be the topmost window at any time,
act like a normal window, hide beneath all other windows at all
times, or graft itself to your Desktop. In Konfabulator 1.5.6,
just released, using Expose to reveal the Desktop also reveals
Desktop-level Widgets, making it possible for a single click or
keystroke to show a host of Konfabulator Widgets that you want
out of sight most of the time.
Being able to float a Widget above all other windows or
incorporate one onto your Desktop reminds me of palette-based
automation utilities. Although creating a Widget is undoubtedly
more difficult than constructing a macro in QuicKeys X or iKey,
its capabilities are equivalently more powerful. The possibilities
abound.
**Clicking Widgets** -- Widgets provide their own interfaces,
which are in most cases limited to visible controls and a Widget
Preferences window that's accessible either by Control-clicking
the Widget or choosing it from the hierarchical Widget Preferences
menu in the Konfabulator "gear" menu in the menubar. Closing a
Widget is merely a matter of Control-clicking the Widget and
choosing Close Widget (for those Widgets that don't provide a
persistent interface, like the iChat Bezel Widget that pops up
to tell you when your iChat buddies change state, you can press
Control and choose the hidden Widget from Konfabulator's gear
menu). You can also use the Konfabulator gear menu to look for
new Widgets, open Widgets, set preferences for current Widgets,
and quit Konfabulator entirely. Perhaps my main criticism of
Konfabulator is that hiding so much of the interface behind
contextual menus and modifier keys means that it can be a bit
befuddling to use until you internalize the basics of opening,
closing, and customizing Widgets.
Each Widget actually runs as a separate instance of the
Konfabulator runtime engine, which means that a given Widget is
just a normal Mac OS X application, and won't have any more impact
on the overall system than any other application. Konfabulator
remembers the open Widgets from the last time it was open, so if
you put Konfabulator in your Login Items/Startup Items list, it
will bring up your last set of Widgets automatically when you
login.
In an ideal world I'd learn JavaScript and write some Widgets to
monitor my Internet servers and perform other tasks, but that's
not going to happen, so I'll leave it to others to write the cool
Widgets I can load into Konfabulator. Whether you're capable of
writing your own Widgets or just want to enjoy the fruits of the
labor of others, Konfabulator is one piece of useful eye candy
you'll want to check out.
Konfabulator requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later, with 10.2.3 or later
recommended. It costs $25 through Kagi, though you can use it for
a while before registering (choose Register from the Konfabulator
gear menu).
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/16-Feb-04
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff
**Apple Releases Safari 1.2** -- When a Web page doesn't load
correctly in Safari, is it the fault of the browser or the page's
HTML coders? The ongoing discussion of the latest version of
Apple's Web browser turns to how browsers are forced to deal
with sloppy page design. (56 messages)
$$
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